We will begin in Genesis 2. It is an incredible passage. Most of you probably think you already know the story, and you probably do. But there is something here I think is often missed.

Beginning at verse 18:

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18-25 ESV)

Here we have the historical narrative of the creation of woman and of the establishment of marriage, and it begins with God's sovereign declaration that it is not good for man to be alone. This was not Adam's self-realization. Adam did not come himself to the understanding that it was not good for himself to be alone. He did not know any better than being alone. It was God's sovereign authority and God's purpose in creation to declare that it was not good for Adam to be alone. Man's aloneness was by God's design; it anticipated His creation of woman.

But here is the interesting thing that is often missed. God declares that'"it is not good that the man should be alone,"' (v. 18) and then He reveals his purpose as Creator: "I will make him a helper fit for him, a complement. I will complete the man in the helper I will create for him" (v. 19). In our imagination, we tend to move immediately to the creation of Eve. But that is not what happens in the text. Notice the next verse: "So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them." What in the world is going on here? All of a sudden we have zoology. We have the story of Adam the animal-namer, and this seems disjunctive. What is going on here? Well, just ponder with me for a moment what did Adam learn from naming the animals.

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"COVENANT BEFORE GOD!" That is the essence of marriage. And when God stands as witness to the covenant promises of a marriage, it becomes more than a merely human agreement. God is not a passive bystander at a wedding ceremony. In effect he says, I have seen this, I confirm it, and I record it in heaven. And I bestow upon this covenant by my presence and my purpose the dignity of being an image of my own covenant with my wife, the church.

God Is in a Covenant with His Wife, His People We know this from Ephesians 5, but there is pointer to it in verse 16, and this is my final observation from the text. Verse 16 says, "For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel." This is the only time in the whole book where God calls himself the "God of Israel." I don't think that is an accident. Because the root reason why God hates divorce is that it is fundamentally a contradiction of his covenant with his wife, his people.

He is the God of Israel. The fellowship may be broken. There may be exile and separation. There may be anger and tears. But when whole story is told, the sum of the matter is Isaiah 54:4-8:

Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.

God will never nullify his marriage to the elect. Christ will never forsake his bride, the church. He is a covenant maker and a covenant keeper. And that is the meaning of marriage.

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